Honda executive asks China to offer incentives for hybrid vehicles

Shanghai. November 21 (Gasgoo.com) - Mitsuru Ozaki, general manager of Dongfeng Honda asked Chinese government to offer incentives to hybrid vehicles, Hongzhou-based Chinese newspaper Today Morning Express reported yesterday.

 

This month Dongfeng Honda will be imported Japanese-made Honda Civic hybrid vehicles to Chinese market. The report said the vehicle will be priced at 269,800 Chinese yuan (36,000 U.S. dollars).

 

"To make vehicle affordable to Chinese consumers, it is not enough to relay solely on reducing production cost,” Ozaki said. “It is our hope that Chinese government can hear our wishes, namely, China should come up with more incentives for hybrid vehicles.”

 

Europe and North America already have such preferential polices for hybrid vehicles in place; clearly China is left far behind in this area, Ozaki said.

 

"In the reminder of this year (one month and ten days), our target is to sell 200 Civic hybrid vehicles. However, the sales target for the next year will depend on market response,” said Ozaki. “We do not expect the model to become a hot-selling vehicle very soon.”

 

The vehicle, which is equipped with a 1.3 Liter engine, can compete with 1.8 Liter vehicle in terms of output, Ozaki said. It consumes only 4.7 Liter oil to cover 100 kilometers.

 

Experts said the hybrid vehicle boasts half the fuel consumption of a normal 1.8 liter petrol vehicle to cover the same distance.

The first Hybrid vehicle that entered Chinese market is Toyota Prius, which started production in Changchun-based FAW-Toyota at the end of 2005. But the sales of this hybrid vehicle are disappointingly small.

In October this year, Toyota Prius sold only 16 units in China; while the vehicle sold 81 units in the same month last year; in the ten month this year, the model sold only 299 units; while it sold 2,116 units in the same period last year.

 

Experts say disappointing sales of Toyota Prius is because of its prices (about $38,000). It is too expensive and China has not yet offered substantial policy incentives to its manufacturers and customers.